Holistic Life Navigation

Music was the force that connected me back to myself. It was my Kintsugi - the Japanese art of putting broken bowls back together with gold. I was broken from trauma and the vibrations of music brought my back into my body and taught me capacity and, essentially, transmutation of energy.On today's episode, I invited by dear friend Fredo Viola on to speak about using music to process trauma. He is an accomplished composer, singer, and performer who's newest album releases on April 9th, 2021. This particular album, titled My New Head, is truly about transmuting pain into beauty & I use it as a compass for this discussion.You can purchase his album on vinyl, or digitally, at  http://mynewhead.com.BIOFredo Viola is a singer, composer and audio visual artist living in the United States.  He studied film making at Tisch School fo the Arts and released his first full-length album with experimental videos to great acclaim in France and England in 2008.  For more info about Fredo’s latest album, My New Head, go to http://mynewhead.com.  More info about Fredo’s projects can be found at http://fredoviola.comYou can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

I was given a very unique name growing up: Luis Monroig Mojica III. I am the third generation of this name lineage and I never quite understood it until recently. Like a seed that sits dormant, waiting for nutrients. My name sat there out in the open waiting to be nourishing with curiosity and inquiry.Growing up, I would often ask what my name meant. I was visibly white but my name and soul were not. My grandfather and father would always say "Spanish Indian". This never made any sense because he came from Puerto Rico. So I would say "Which tribe?" and no one would answer. It was like an unthinkable question was asked.Then several years ago I received results from a DNA test that said I my Latino DNA came from Indigenous Puerto Rico & North Africa: Los Tainos y Los Guanches peoples. Amazing! So many confirmations came flooding in. My affinity for the tropics, my pagan nature, and my deeply profound connection to Native American culture.Since then, I've been connecting with friends, elders, and scholars around these first peoples and learning more about them - my ancestors. This episode is part of that journey.I welcome Akutu (Grandmother) Irka Mateo to tell me about her journey of reclaiming her indigenous Taino heritage in a world that claimed it had gone extinct. She shares that story, her own wisdom, traditions, and a very powerful medicine song.Let this be a reminder to us all: we're all indigenous to somewhere. Your heritage can unlock some profound body wisdom and gift you with a compass to navigate yourself with. This does not create "tribalism" as a way to separate from one another. Instead, it shows us how alike we all our as we are all children of the same mother, Earth, and because of that we are all related.BIOAkutu Irka is a Taino medicine woman (bohutio), ceremonialist, singer-songwriter, and teacher. She practices animism and ancestors’ reverence in the tradition of Caribbean and South American indigenous spirituality. Guided by her compassionate spirit guides, Irka conducts the healing ceremonies through spontaneous sacred chanting and the playing of Taino ancestral instruments, such as the Mayowakan (drum), rattles, and playing Pre-Hispanic ceramic whistles – replicas of which she makes herself. For more information on Irka, you can visit her at:https://sacredtainohealing.com/http://irkamateo.com/You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Today's episode is about one woman's journey to reconnect with her indigenous roots. Like Kai says in this episode: our bodies are our ancestors. Our bodies carry their stories: traumas and triumphs. Oral traditions once passed down those stories so we had context of why our bodies do what they do and why we express certain behaviors and patterns.Kai grew up in America seeing images of Filipino children living in poverty - the only representation she saw. Until, one day, she saw an image of a Filipina woman in a magazine who looked powerful, wise, and radiant. So she decided to go find her.Kai embarked on a journey to the Philippines and traveled through the mountains to connect with this woman, get tattooed by her and begin the journey of reconnecting to her indigenous heritage to heal her own trauma & connect more deeply to the Earth.BIOAngelica “Kai” Bautista was born in 1979 on Tongva land post colonially renamed Los Angeles, California. She is the youngest daughter of Filipinx parents from Pampanga and Balanga, Philippines. Having roots from a land with a complex history of colonization and untold genocide by multiple nations including  Spain, the US, and Japan, there was a wide disconnection from her identity. Kai found herself digging into her ancestry after reading about an elder named Whang Od Oggay,  who was the last Mambatok (hand tap tattooer) from the Butbut tribe in the mountains of Luzon, Philippines. Prior to this, she had no idea that there were still indigenous tribes from her ancestral land. Kai has backpacked and traveled extensively for the past 20 years and has naturally found herself with healers, priestesses, curanderas, and shamans within the mountains, jungles, lakes, coasts, etc. of the world. It was not until 2016 that  she traveled back to her roots in the Philippines, as an adult, in order to get tattooed and meet her idol Whang Od Oggay in the mountain village of Buscalan. Since then she went  back to learn indigenous medicine  and is now a Binabaylan (One who walks the path of the Babaylan). A Babaylan is a pre-colonial shaman, healer, mystic, and warrior. She is an energy worker  and reiki vessel who understands the spectrum of life and death after four death and near death experiences. She is a shadow and root worker who delights in helping people move dense blockages within the psyche, spirit, emotional and physical body. My personal IG is @Angelikai11 and my e-mail is KaiStillWild@gmail.comYou can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Trauma is when events so big, so scary, and so overwhelming cause a reaction in the body the breaks us off from ourselves. Trauma is an inevitable rupture we must all experience throughout our lives. When those ruptures repair, we are left with deep wisdom and insight into life. We are given new perceptions, have more resilience & capacity in our bodies, and often emerge with more gratitude for life - even the trauma.My guest today shares how the journey of fertility and the desire to become a mother ended up teaching her so much about herself & her own unresolved traumas. For instance, realizing how poorly she mothered herself for most of her life and how this would become a priority before she could expect herself to mother someone else.BIOTheresa is a Health and Life Coach who loves helping others heal, dream and thrive. She's founder of Anahata, a community based organization centered on healing, and host of the radio show and podcast, "i want what SHE has." As long as she's practiced her self care for the day, she also makes time to organize the City of Kingston's Heal Well Focus Team, serve as a member of Ulster County's Restorative Justice Task Force and uplift as a member of the Girls' Inc. of Ulster and Dutchess Counties Advisory Committee. And she sends a big hug to all those wanting to be mamas. You can do it!You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Healing intergenerational trauma is nuanced, unique, and personal. No two people will do it the same way. Vincent has found a pathway to ancestral, intergenerational, and cultural-collective trauma through the process of transitioning.We speak about the spiritual experience of being transmasculine. The process, for Vincent, helped him balance his feminine and masculine energies into a place that's become more authentic, ambiguous, and free to be whatever feels natural.I alway say that nature is androgynous. How could it not be? Our biologies are on thing, but the energies that move through our biologies are an entirely different creature. A creature that cannot be tamed, regardless of how hard we may try.BIOVincent Frano is a primarily self-taught, queer artist. His works are autobiographical accounts from his daily life; where domesticity, nature, and science are all manifestations and reflections of spirituality. Frano’s work explores a series of visual languages that evolve with time. Each piece expresses his understanding of Life through an innate animistic view.You can learn more about Vincent & his work by visiting: https://www.vincentfrano.comYou can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Today's episode welcomes Holly Howard who is a business consultant, music therapist, and founder of Ask Holly How. Her work is unorthodox, radical, and powerfully transformative. I wanted to have her on because she believes that one's business is an extension of their own psyche and body.Holly speaks about the term "scarcity supremacy". She sees white supremacy as an extension of this - and I agree. In America, we can see it in our history everywhere. Our original flight response from Europe was steeped in threat and, I believe, that trauma response just got projected into slavery, classism, sexism, and any other kind of phobic othering that we've seen in the massive cultural & collective traumas throughout our history and present day.Still, how do those trauma responses affect our businesses? How do we create a more bio-diverse experience in our business? From our employees & customer base to the our sourcing of materials - so much depends on how secure am I within myself?Holly answers some of these questions and introduces her holistic, avant-garde business philosophies to us in this episode. Holly is not on social media, yet she has a very successful business. To learn from her, sign up for her newsletter at https://www.askhollyhow.com. You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Today I welcome back April Harter to speak about racism being  a branch of narcissism. It is important to go back and listen to previous episodes I've recorded with April. In this order:Episode 5 & 6: Racism Recovery: Healing Racism Through The Lens Of Trauma Episode 16: Narcissism Comes From Unprocessed Trauma Her concepts, philosophies, and approach to narcissism & racism are very pioneering. There's no one else really talking about this the same way she is. Specifically how she, as a black woman, finds compassion for racists and narcissists because she understands that they both stem from trauma and social learning.In this episode, we speak freely about her understanding of racism being a relational addiction and, in that, a form of narcissism. The racist is addicted to using the other race to feel better about themselves. From that place, they are soothed. This is part of what's been taught and passed down through the centuries in America.For more information on April's work, please visit her at https://www.narcissismrecoverycenter.com.You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Today's episode is probably my favorite of all time. I speak with Claudia Serrato who is, among many other things, a womb ecologist & indigenous culinary anthropologist. We speak about reawakening our  bodies with ancestral foods from our heritage, as well as wild foods ancient to the lands that we currently reside on. We speak about decolonizing our bodies and minds through our diets. We also talk about decolonizing the taste buds of our children as they develop in the womb.The foundation of our conversation is about honoring our land through food. We both agree that, through honoring our land, we become aware of our connection to all living things and we lose the social constructs of classism, racism, sexism, and any other concepts that separate us.BIOClaudia Serrato is a  womb ecologist, indigenous culinary anthropologist, chef, professor, mother, & co-founder of Across Our Kitchen Tables.  She is a Xicana woman living on Tongva land in what we call Los Angeles, CA.To connect with Claudia, and stay updated about her important work, you can follow her on Instagram @xicana_indigena or by visiting https://www.instagram.com/xicana_indigena/You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

On today's episode, I welcome back Karen Hurd to teach us about dairy & how it affects the body. Personally, I have linked all of my childhood illnesses to dairy. I had high cholesterol, was 50 pounds overweight, suffered from debilitating asthma, and had really painful cystic acne all over my face, neck and back.Medications suppressed the symptoms for me, which offered some relief, but they did not go away until I removed dairy from my diet when I was around 18. I am 33 now and I have none of these conditions anymore. They've all completely reversed.So I had Karen on to tell me what dairy was doing to my body and why so many of us will find relief from inflammation, auto-immune conditions, and chronic illness just by removing dairy from our diets.For more information on Karen's work, visit her website at http://www.karenhurd.com/.You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

In this episode, I bring my colleagues back for a roundtable discussion about vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is when your body experiences someone else's trauma. This can happen through media, witnessing horror in person, or while listening to someone recount a traumatic event. Vicarious trauma is especially common for therapists and medical professionals.Some things we discuss are:- The difference between somatic empathy & vicarious trauma.- How to physically notice when you're becoming overwhelmed by a person or event.- How we, as therapists, maintain our center while holding space for trauma.If you're interested in working with, or contacting, any of the therapists from this discussion you can find their info below:Linda Dukess: http://www.lindabernsteintherapy.com/Alexis Katz: https://www.alexiskatzlcsw.com/Laurie Robbins: http://www.robbinscounseling.com/Daniel Schidlowsky: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/daniel-schidlowsky-kingston-ny/342788You can register for the FREE Food Therapy session here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/events/beans You can pre-order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book You can read more about, and register for, the retreat at Broughton in the UK here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/broughton-2026----You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigationQuestions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com